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Thursday, June 03, 2010

Abdul Still At Rock Bottom

It's time for a reality check for the ever expanding ego of radio talk show host Abdul Hakim-Shabazz. It seems he's been telling tales as of late about how much his WXNT-AM morning radio show has been improving in the ratings. Last year, I checked out the Arbitron ratings and found that he was at the bottom of the News Talk market in the Indianapolis metropolitan region, which Rush Limbaugh has led for quite awhile. Among the local News Talk shows, Garrison on WIBC-FM comes out on top, although below Rush's ratings. In Garrison's 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. slot, his show pulled a 1.2 rating, which equates to 8.7% of a total market of 173,000 listeners of age 12 and over. By comparison, Abdul's 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. slot pulled in a 0.2 rating, or a 1.2% share of a market that equates to 22,000 listeners of age 12 and over. Is his rating up from last year? Statistically, the answer is yes, but only by one-tenth of a percentage point. Do the math and you can see just how pathetic his show's ratings are. On a good day he might have 300 listeners, but on average he's down around 250 daily listeners. The ad rates for his show have to be the absolute lowest you can purchase for radio advertising. It's hardly worth the effort.

19 comments:

I have no doubt that Abdul's capable of being a very good radio host. He's clever, smart, and quick with the quip.

The trouble is he's no longer seen as being an independent voice when it comes to the issues of the day like he was before the Ballard election. Now he's seen as just a mouthpiece for the administration and Tom John...and rightfullly so, because he is.

If Abdul would have shown and kept an independent streak, instead of signing up to be a cheerleader for the Republcian Old Guard, I have no doubt Abdul's ratings could be double what they are now.

Laying aside Abdul's defamatory comments, Jon, when I point up his rock bottom ratings, his explanation of why it isn't as bad as it really seems is as follows: "When you look at radio ratings you are looking a the general universe of everyone 12+. That's not how radio is sold. We are all broken down by demographics, we do quite well with are demo which is men, 35-54." I'll give Abdul his first point, but his second point is frivolous. No matter how you shake out his ratings, he has a very tiny share of a very tiny market. Why? A) He's on the AM Dial; (B) His station's signal is so weak it doesn't even reach the entire Indianapolis metropolitan region; (C) Even if you can pick up the station's signal, it drops off the air for 2-3 seconds about 4 to 5 times an hour. There must be a fix for that problem but obviously the station doesn't have any money to invest in its dying AM business; and (D) Radio is a shrinking market. If you don't believe me, just ask Emmis' Smulyan. Many people have switched to satellite radio since it already comes installed in your automobile, or simply listen to music on their IPODs rather than the radio.

Michael, Unfortunately, the goofballs who run the Republican Party locally and the Mayor of Indianapolis thinks this is a cool guy. He's phony and full of shit just like them. I call them like I see them. If you don't like it, tune me out. It's not like you're paying anything to drop by my site daily, which has a bigger audience than Abdul's radio show.

I should add that WIBC catapulted its ratings by simply switching from the AM dial to the FM dial. The days of listening to WLS hundreds of miles from Chicago and enjoying the antics of claasical DJs like Larry Lujak and Bob Serat are long gone. I remember being on a trip out west when I was a kid and my dad being able to pick the station up late at night in New Mexico. My cousin said he could sometimes pick it up when he was in the Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego.

By way of this blog (which is great) I think Abdulawho's ratings might have just jumped another tenth of a point for those of us who have simply forgotten him altogether. I am sure several of your readers will now tune in just for a refresher.

Paul's comment is right on the money. One of the frequent posters of Abdul's blog, Think Again, just flat out said that Abdul should just join his campaign because at least then he'd be getting paid. At this point, voluntarily or not, Abdul is where you'll hear the MCRCC talking points be presented.

Kind of funny, because I've seen the suggestion more than once that the Republicans should get an Indianapolis Times-like blog. But now they have it.

Gary, I've never had a problem getting Abdul's radio show in the morning, but I usually listen from home. But I also listen to Alan Colmes, which runs from 10pm-1am. Dead air usually sets in around 12:00-12:06am, and might continue between 1-2 minutes or longer. Once, it stayed dead for 20+ and I just gave up. I don't know if the signal got mixed up, or someone didn't push the right button, or what have you, but it frequently happens. I usually don't even try to listen to Colmes on WXNT anymore and just listen to Fox News Radio's online feed.

I also think WIBC gets better ratings because of more local hosts. WXNT has Abdul, and then a mix of repeats and local hosts on the weekends. WIBC has their morning show, Garrison, Ed Wank, and Denny Smith, and offer some local programming as well on the weekends.

Abdul always says there is no such thing as bad publicity. It's all good. Maybe he should make a sex tape and leak it to the Internet. When I lived in Springfield, Illinois, a state house reporter we all made fun of with the local NBC affiliate, Kelly Smith, made a sex tape with a bad looking babe with bruises all over her legs. It included a scene where she paddled him with a boat oar. Someone at the state information office reproduced a bunch of tapes so everyone could view them on their VCRs. People were hosting Kelly Smith sex tape parties and getting drunk while they watch it for entertainment. Later, Smith landed a better paying job as a public information officer with a state agency after the station fired him. Not sure if it had something to do with state resources being used to reproduce the sex tape. But I digress.

Whenever Abdul's back is against the wall, he always plays the race card. Someone just forwarded me a Twitter he posted a short time earlier in response to this blog post about his ratings. "Just got attacked by a local wannabe Indy political blogger," he tweets. "I'd take him seriously if he didn't hate black people." "Who's up for pie?" The last time he played the race card with me was when I exposed his lies about his handiwork at the IndyUndercover blog and the blatant cover story he spewed to cover for the real reason IMPD sought to learn the identity of the IndyUndercover blogger, which was to learn who had identified a confidential police informant on the blog in an arson case that resulted in endangering the life of the confidential informant. Yes, it was him. The confidential informant was pregnant with child at the time his blog outed her. Real nice guy that Abdul.

Sucks to be on an AM station that not enough people know about and that probably doesn't get a sufficient enough budget to promote itself.

Abdul does a lot of very good reporting that otherwise might not get covered, even by the good Mr. Garrison. Everyone has some kind of bias. It usually just comes down to knowing what kind of filter to put on your ears when listening.

The demographic discussion, Chris, is pointless when your audience share is that low. The Spanish stations in town have a much bigger audience than he has on WXNT. That's a demographic were the targeted advertising makes sense. A political candidate, for example, would be wasting money advertising on his show. You're preaaching to a very small choir. The only reason any business would advertise on his show is because the ad rates are so cheap. He certainly doesn't get advertising from businesses targeting a black audience like Amos gets. Also, Chris, you need to decide where you stand on Abdul and stop talking out of both sides of your mouth. You bad mouth him to people off line and then jump on line to defend him.

Gary, I like your blog, but if your point is that Abdul's small audience renders him irrelevant, aren't you just negating your point by your posting? I mean, if he's truly irrelevant, why take up space on AI with a post about him?

While I dont like the fact that Abdul is nothing but Tom JOhns little butt buddy puppet, the CCP for his show is not bad at all.

You are wrong on your numbers. He has about 1,360 in the 35+ demo which is what they are going after. You cannot use the 12+ numbers, they dont mean a thing.

Besides when you are buying Abdul you are not buying stricikly Arb numbers, you are buying some type of influance with Abdul. His AQH is fairly stable, and that is what you want in a show. Bob and Tom have had the best AQH for years.

Typicaly the 35+ demo have solid CCP and fall into a very highly desired buy pattern. Besides, I am willing to bet that because it is a must buy for politics that they wil do well in the 4th Quarter.

Abduls show nothing but a toy for the corporate suites to showoff. Every station must do a % of minority broadcasting. His corporate goons can parade him around and look good doing it.

Tyey make NO money on that show. in fact the station is not doing well at all. Every other top 25 market has Glenn Beck # 1. Not here in Indy.Dennis Miller is getting his ass handed to him by Wank, so put Beck in the PM drive spot. But again the problem is the AM signal.

They blew it when they did not take the talk format to the FM frequency. Abdul might have increased his numbers.The only time that AM 1430 had any numbers was when it was the old WFBM AM.

As for the price of the station, the CPP is in line with the other stations in this market. The spot $$$ amount means nothing unless it is translated into APL segments.

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